Catherine Galliford, a former high-profile RCMP spokesperson who later sued the force alleging widespread sexual harassment, has died at the age of 58.
Galliford, who spoke on behalf of the force during high-profile cases like the Air India bombing trial and the investigation into serial killer Robert Pickton, rose up the RCMP ranks in the 90s and early 2000s and served as a corporal.
In 2011, she spoke exclusively to CBC News, claiming long-term sexual harassment over two decades with the RCMP.
Her treatment, which she said left her with PTSD and agoraphobia, eventually prompted her to file a lawsuit that was settled in 2016. It led to a wave of other civil suits from other officers that forced a reckoning within RCMP ranks.
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Galliford died Friday of liver cancer in Kamloops, B.C., according to her friends and fellow former RCMP officers Janet Merlo and Cheryl Jarvis, who were with her.
Merlo was one of the lead plaintiffs in a civil suit that alleged sexual harassment within the RCMP, and credited Galliford for inspiring her to come forward.
“It was Catherine’s interview that encouraged the rest of us to speak up and find our voices,” Merlo told CBC News.
“She was the inspiration,” she added. “If she hadn’t done that interview, I would have never said anything. I would have just went to my grave quiet like everybody else. But she was definitely the person that lit that torch for me personally.”
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Both officers said that, despite over $100 million being paid out to sexual harassment victims within the RCMP, they both receive complaints from serving members every week alleging mistreatment.
Jarvis, who also said she was sexually harassed while on the force, said she wants Galliford to be remembered for being a compassionate and empathetic police officer whose courage should inspire others within the RCMP to speak up.
“I am truly hoping, in her [memory], that torch is passed to those that are working now, that she gives them the strength to stand up and say, ‘It is still going on. This is still what is happening to us’ … use it as your battle cry to say enough is enough,” the former Mountie said.
Galliford was born Dec. 28, 1966, and Jarvis said she grew up in the Vancouver area before moving to Prince George, B.C.
The former spokesperson used a background in journalism to inform her career as a media spokesperson, according to Jarvis.
Jarvis, Merlo and Galliford all graduated together from the RCMP academy in 1991.
Though she fronted the RCMP’s handling of many high-profile cases, Galliford later spoke on behalf of Pickton victims at the inquiry into the serial killer’s case.
Galliford told CBC News in 2011 that police were indifferent to the investigation, saying investigators were more interested in padding their paycheques and drinking alcohol than catching a serial killer.
Jarvis said that her testimony on behalf of the family of Pickton’s victims showed how empathetic and compassionate Galliford was.
“She tried to bring some closure to the families … to say, you know, ‘Someone is listening,'” Jarvis said.
“She was a true amazing woman that way.”
During her 2011 interview with CBC News, Galliford revealed numerous instances where she had been the victim of sexual harassment over her two decades on the force, as well as her struggles with PTSD and agoraphobia.
“If I had a dime for every time one of my bosses asked me to sit on his lap, I’d be on a yacht in the Bahamas right now,” she said in that interview.
In May 2012, Galliford filed a civil suit against four officers, an RCMP doctor, the attorney general of Canada, who oversees the RCMP, and B.C.’s justice minister.
The suit was eventually settled in 2016, though Galliford said she lost everything after she went public, including her position on the force and her home.
Merlo said that the stress caused by her treatment on the force likely contributed to the cancer that eventually caused her death.
“It broke my heart that her whole life was torn to shreds for nothing more than telling the truth,” Merlo said.
Merlo says she hopes Galiford’s life and death encourage other victims to speak out.
“I think the call for action now has to be to current engaged RCMP members who see this, and they know what’s going on, but they’re afraid to speak out,” she said.
“In Catherine’s name and in Catherine’s memory, you have to find your voice and go public with this.”
